Food & Drink Round-Up October 2019
In this post I share some of my food and drink highlights from last month, bringing together the best of the blog and my social media during October 2019.
Includes a recommended read on the history of cooking and eating, reports from one of Staffordshire’s biggest food events (and also from one of its smallest), eating out and more.
Amore Italian Restaurant, Newcastle-Under-Lyme
Strictly speaking, as I ate at Amore in Newcastle-Under-Lyme in September, this item should have been in the previous month’s round up.
But I didn’t write my review for the blog until October, and I really don’t want to leave it out of my highlights, so here we are.
I was wowed by Amore‘s top-notch pasta dishes (like Gnocchi al Sugo pictured above, with meaty shredded beef rib) as well as an unusual starter with a sauce I’d been looking to sample for a while.
Chef Francesco and manager Cassie have created a wonderful, family-run restaurant: Read my review of Amore here
A poorly start to the month
On the evening of the first of October I could feel that something wasn’t quite right. Sure enough, the next day I woke up feeling yucky and with a sore throat. I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much though, as I don’t think I’ve had a cold for at least a couple of years.
Anyway, I still had to take the dog out for a walk and when I got back I wasn’t well at all. Although I didn’t feel like eating much, I thought I’d better have something to give me a boost.
The result was this brightly coloured juice. I made it by whizzing up a grated carrot, fresh ginger, the juice of a couple of oranges and a lemon. To make it more filling and to add nutrition I included a spoon of homemade yogurt.
It was only after I posted a photo on social media and someone suggested adding turmeric, that I remembered I had planned to do exactly that. But my foggy brain had forgotten.
I’m not sure there’s much, or indeed any, scientific evidence for the almost magic properties some ascribe to turmeric. But I confess I wave scepticism aside when I’m ill, happy to try anything that might help. I suppose it’s a bit like that old saying there’s no atheists in foxholes/the trenches. A case of hope, or desperation, over reality.
Anyway, whether it was a lack of turmeric or just bad luck, my cold developed rather nastily and certainly put a bit of a damper on the first few weeks of October.
Soups galore
With the return of Autumn, I’d probably have gone back to making lots of soups anyway. But, feeling very low, I found myself absolutely craving warming bowls of savoury goodness.
At my worst, I couldn’t face anything more complicated than this basic chicken broth with a few bits of broken spaghetti in it. Rather than simmering chicken pieces or a whole chicken for ages though, I made a cheat’s version and couldn’t quite believe how good it was.
It’s really simple, using a chicken breast, veg, decent stock cubes. It’s made in around thirty minutes and is certainly worth having in your repertoire for when you need something restorative. I must make it again soon and write a post with instructions.
However, I did manage to write about a nourishing and flavour packed soup of beans, pancetta and cabbage. Luckily, I’d made and photographed this before I got ill.
It’s one of my all time favourite soups and borrows from classic bean and pork soups from Italy, France, Spain as well as Britain. I think it’s one of those Autumn and Winter dishes you can almost feel doing you good as you eat it. Get the recipe for Bean, Bacon & Cabbage Soup here
Stone Food & Drink Festival
I’d been really looking forward to the Stone Food & Drink Festival, always held over the first weekend in October. Run by a team of volunteers and on a not-for-profit basis, the Festival is a huge accomplishment that brings thousands to the town.
So I was annoyed to say the least when I’d come down with that horrible cold. Even worse, the night before I completely lost my sense of taste and smell!
Thankfully, by morning (and after inhaling the steam from bowls of menthol and eucalyptus-filled boiling water), I’d managed to get some of those sensations back. Read my post about The Stone Food & Drink Festival here
Books: Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson
Besides food (and writing my blog), one of my major interests is books. So I guess it’s only natural that I’m interested in books about food.
During October I read Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson. If you’re interested in food history then I highly recommend it. It’s an easy and interesting read, not at all dry, looking at the history of how we cook and eat.
The book is divided into chapters with themes like ‘Fire’, ‘Measure’ and ‘Grind’.
The content is perhaps best illustrated by a quote from towards the end, “The food we cook is not only an assemblage of ingredients. It is the product of technologies, past and present.”
I found it full of interesting, sometimes quirky, detail and learnt a huge amount from it.
Consider the Fork was published in 2012 and there’s plenty of cheap, second hand copies around, including lots on eBay for £3-£4 including postage.
On BBC Radio Stoke for World Porridge Day
Every single day of the year, judging by social media anyway, is national this or world that day for some foodstuff or other. Ones I’ve seen include Yorkshire pudding day, pizza day, toast day and hummus day.
But World Porridge Day, held on 10 October, is unusual. Rather than being dreamt up by some PR company, it was actually launched by Mary’s Meals; an organisation that provides meals to some of the world’s poorest children.
I was invited onto John Acres’ breakfast show on BBC Radio Stoke to talk about ways to make your porridge more interesting. Everyone knows about putting fruit, nut butters etc. on top. But I like to put goodies in the porridge as it cooks.
I think John liked my idea of carrot cake porridge (pictured above), although I failed to convince him that savoury porridge deserves a look in.
I think it’s great with bacon and mushrooms cooked with the oats and topped with a poached egg and grilled tomatoes. Yes, it may sound odd, but it’s actually very similar to risotto.
As Heston Blumenthal, of snail porridge fame, says: ‘we eat porridge for breakfast, often with something sweet… yet porridge itself is not sweet. It is a grain, just as rice is’. Take a look at my breakfast recipes, including porridge, here
Apples, Apples, Apples
Like World Porridge Day, Apple Day (21 October in the UK) was started by campaigners with a conscience.
The first Apple Day took place in 1990 and was organised by Common Ground, the community conservation and environmental education organisation. Now there are hundreds of Apple Days and apple festivals taking place all over Britain.
The Foxlowe Arts Centre in Leek has held its Apple Fest for a number of years and I went along this October. Besides apple tasting and juicing there were tasty apple treats to buy. Read my post about Apple Fest here.
Talking of apple treats, I made a real old-fashioned dessert in October: Apple Batter Pudding.
All you do is heat up butter in a baking dish, add sliced apples (I used Cox’s), sugar and cinnamon and cook for 5-10 minutes to start softening the apples. Then you pour over a batter (made exactly as if you were making Yorkshire pudding or pancakes) and bake until it’s cooked and golden.
Lovely with a sprinkle of demerara sugar and a bit of cream poured over to serve.
American-Style Scones
During October I experimented with American Style scones.
With American scones, rather than rolling and cutting out, you just pat the dough into a thick circle then cut into wedges before baking. As you don’t put butter, jam or cream on them, the scones also tend to be more buttery and sweet than British ones.
The scones you see above were my first effort: maple, pecan and cinnamon with a maple and cinnamon drizzle. I did like them, but I thought they weren’t quite sweet enough. So I need to do a little more testing and tweaking.
However, I don’t think I’d change a thing about the savoury version above. These were spring onion, red onion, Cheddar and Parmesan, plus a little mustard. The scones were lovely & soft inside, a bit like a muffin, and went really well with big bowls of Bean, Bacon & Cabbage Soup for dinner.
I’ll certainly be experimenting with more American-style scones, sweet and savoury and will post recipes when I’ve perfected them.
Eccles cakes
Stuck at home for much of the month, I tried another experiment: Eccles cakes.
I’d been meaning to have a go at these currant-filled pastries for a while, after being most dis-chuffed to discover that those familiar yellow packs of ‘Real Lancashire’ Eccles cakes contain palm oil. And that’s despite the ‘containing pure butter’ tagline on the front.
I’m pleased to say they turned out great; wonderfully crisp, buttery and not too sweet. They were pretty easy too, especially as I used homemade ‘rough puff’ pastry with fewer steps than flaky pastry.
Think I’ll have to double up the recipe next time though. It made eight mini Eccles cakes which went in a flash!
No.26 Restaurant at Aston Marina
As October wore on, I started to feel a lot better and had the urge to get out and about more. For me, that meant picking another restaurant from my lengthy list of places I’d yet to try.
On this occasion, it was the turn of No.26 Bar & Dining at Aston Marina near Stone.
And what a good choice, if I do say so myself.
On a dark, chilly evening, I was treated to some wonderful seasonal, Autumnal dishes like the duo of local venison pictured above. Read my review of No.26 here.
Back to BBC Radio Stoke for The Takeaway
I returned to BBC Radio Stoke later in the month, for another appearance on the Thursday night foodie show The Takeaway where Robin Grey was standing in for regular presenter Michelle Daniel.
My fellow dinner dater in the first half of the show was Josef from The Quarter Cafe in Hanley and there was lots of interesting chat.
Josef brought in two wonderful cakes for us to try; one with pear and the other flavoured with chai spices. The latter reminded me how much I love baking with this warming, peppery spice mix including in a version of my Spiced Fruit Sourdough.
My contribution was a ‘savoury cream tea’ featuring Very Cheesy Cheese Scones, Smoky Tomato-Chilli Chutney and homemade cream cheese.
It’s always a bit nerve racking when someone who runs a business feeding others tries the food of a home cook like me. But I was relieved when Josef praised the chutney especially, including identifying the smoked paprika in it. Phew!
No-Bake Coconut Cheesecake
The homemade cream cheese I’d taken to BBC Radio Stoke was an experiment that was a little too successful. I’d misjudged how much cream cheese I’d end up with, which turned out to be lots!
The obvious thing to do with lots of cream cheese is a simple, no-bake cheesecake, so that’s what I did.
I decided to make it a coconut cheesecake as coconut is one of my favourite flavours. I beat desiccated coconut into the cream cheese along with sugar and vanilla extract plus a bit of coconut milk and whipped double cream to loosen and lighten it.
The base was made from crushed shortbread fingers; literally the ONLY plainish biscuits without palm oil I could find in the supermarket that day. I think if this was more of a planned recipe, then I’d have used my Homemade Digestive Biscuits recipe.
But it was a hell of a cheesecake anyway. Especially as it was a throw-it-all-in-and-see-wh
Pie at The Duke in Burbage, Buxton
By the end of the month my usual, rather prodigious, appetite for food had returned.
This was just as well because, although you probably can’t tell from this photo, The Duke pub in Burbage, just outside Buxton, does the biggest homemade pies I’ve ever seen.
After a beautiful Autumn walk in the nearby Goyt Valley, we stopped at The Duke for lunch on the last Sunday in October.
They’re known for their homemade pies and I had the one you see here which was ham and mustard. Other half had a steak and ale one. All are enormous, crammed full of meat, and come with chips, mushy peas and a jug of gravy for £13.95.
A couple of years ago The Duke used to be our regular stop after walking in the area, so I was pleased to find it’s still a lovely friendly place (very dog friendly too) with hearty food.
I hope you enjoyed my highlights for October. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to hear about my November food & drink.
All images © Moorlands Eater & not to be reproduced without permission